


Hands

by raktajinos



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bisexual Bucky Barnes, Bucky Barnes's Metal Arm, Crossover Pairings, Everyone is Bisexual, F/M, Flirting, Multi, Past Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:41:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26458111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raktajinos/pseuds/raktajinos
Summary: "...but you're better than Tony?" he said, finishing the lingering statement,  "I'm the best," she said.(wherein Bucky finally admits he needs more specialized care than either himself or Tony can provide)
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Tony Stark, James "Bucky" Barnes/Hermione Granger
Comments: 2
Kudos: 47
Collections: Het Swap Exchange 2020





	Hands

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Entwinedlove](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Entwinedlove/gifts).



> This takes place sortof post-Endgame in that Steve is dead but Tony isn't. Ahhh the power of fanfic.

Bucky grimaced, his mouth forming a tight thin line as he struggled to stay silent, sweat beading on his upper lip, and he tried to distract himself by focusing on the murmured monologue coming out of the man next to him, with no avail, the words a nonsensical blend of technobabble and a language Bucky didn’t understand. 

He was seated in a med-chair in Tony’s lab, a new invention he’d been working on, which Shuri repeatedly said was a blatant rip-off from something called Star Trek. Tony was hunched over his arm, looking everything like the handsome inv

Bucky refocused when Tony sighed, sitting back up. 

“You’ve got to go see Granger,” he said, rubbing his hand over his chin. 

Bucky grimaced and went to put his shirt back on, trying to hide the pain the movement caused his arm. 

‘There’s a reason I see you’ 

‘Which I am extremely flattered by,” tony teased, “and if it wasn’t for my all-consuming love for Pepper, I would be even more flattered” he added with a wink 

Bucky rolled his eyes but didn’t correct him; he might be a jaded old cyborg, but he still had eyes. 

“I don’t trust their doctors” he added gruffly 

“I get that, and again, I’m flattered.... but she’s one of mine. Yes, technically she works for SHIELD, but I brought her in - and I cannot tell you how much of a hard sell that was. She refused me for years - and in more ways than one - “he wiggled his eyebrows “- who says no to me? Nothing I offered would sway her to come work for me, she quote ‘doesn’t work for arms dealers’” he said, putting on a ridiculous English accent. 

“Buck....she’s the best we got and whatever is wrong with your arm is .... beyond me” 

Bucky looked at the man, his confession startling him. 

“...the fact that I have no idea how to fix you is alarming, you need to go see her, if not for yourself, then for me,” 

“Fine,” he acquiesced finally. 

Tony clapped his hands excitedly, “excellent, I’ll upload my notes to her padd and let her know you’re coming” 

“She’s been excited to get her hands on you for quite some time....maybe you can get your hands on her, if you know what I mean” 

Bucky rolled his eyes, “that attitude might be part of the reason she refused to work for you”

Tony feigned mock innocence and pushed Bucky towards the door. “She’s on Blue level”

..... 

Bucky aggressively hit the elevator button for Blue level, pausing to let the bio scanner confirm his identity before it began to descend. Stark and Fury had gotten more paranoid about protecting their assets over the years, so all the classified science was underground surrounded by nuclear shielding. He hated the subterranean life, he spent too many years in the trenches then as a prisoner in his own body, he would gladly take on a little more risk for an office with a view. 

The elevator beeped, alerting him of their arrival on Blue level and Bucky braced himself. Regardless of what Stark said, he didn’t trust these doctors, he barely trusted Stark - only letting the man poke at him because Stark would try and kill him like a man, not like a government agent. 

These doctors, these agents, they were all the same; blinded by ridiculous ideas of nationalistic individualism and desire to ‘protect’ their precious country. He’d seen what blind nationalistic faith could do, would do, and he wanted no part of it. He didn’t work with the Avengers because of some nebulous goal, he did it to help restore some of the injustices he committed and as a favour to Steve. 

The elevator door binged before it opened into a spacious and well-lit lab, lined with tables and shelves, with robotics and tools on every surface. There were a few other people in the lab, their attention focused on their individual projects, so they didn’t notice him. 

Except one young woman whose gaze flittered towards the elevator at the sound of it opening, an automatic behaviour, as her gaze quickly returned to her computer. She did a double take, clearly registering who he was. 

“Oh shit,” he heard her mutter under her breath. 

The person working next to her glanced over in irritation, eyes widening when they saw him. 

Bucky waved awkwardly at them, attempting a smile. Steve was always better at this stuff, hell all the other Avengers were better at this than he was, except perhaps Natasha. 

“...Mr. Barnes, how lovely to see you...” the original woman stammered, “...how can we help you?” 

“Thank you, I’m looking for Dr Granger....I was told she was in...” 

“Ah yes, um, she’s back in her office, just head on back” she replied, pointing to a door in the back of the lab room. 

“Thanks,” Bucky said, again attempting to smile like a normal person at them. 

He walked to the back of the lab, the large white door was ajar, and he tentatively pushed it open and stuck his head in. 

“Hello?”

“Mr. Barnes!” a warm voice with an English accent rang out, and woman in a lab coat and jeans emerged from a large storage cabinet, “please come in,” 

“Stark sent me,” he said uncomfortably, 

“Yes, I just got off the phone with him, I’m Dr Hermione Granger,” and she extended her hand towards him and he grasped it in return; her hand was warm within his own metal one, firm in its grasp. 

“So, what brings you to my lab, Mr. Barnes, it must be pretty severe for you to stop avoiding me,” she said lightly, turning to walk towards the back of the lab and indicating he should follow. 

“I’ve not been avoiding you.... personally” he stammered, 

She smiled, “I’m teasing. I can understand why you would be reluctant to let just anyone examine you. Besides, Tony is very good,” she said, her voice trailing off. She gestured to a chair and for him to sit, while she took up the one next to it, the set-up not unlike a dentist’s office, except with a dozen computers and wires. 

“...but you’re better?” he said, finishing the lingering statement. 

“I’m the best.” she stated matter-of-factly. 

She started attaching wires and odd gel-like patches to his body and he took the opportunity to study her, letting his eyes wander. He was surprised to see her face lacking the arrogance a statement like that would mirror, instead he saw only confidence, softened by the kindness in her features. He resented Tony for suggesting he could seduce this woman, but he resented Tony even more for being right about him. She was beautiful, with her big hair, soft skin, and deep eyes and he was attracted to her. On top of it all, she was intelligent, who wouldn’t be attracted to her.  
Her brown eyes caught his and she smiled knowingly at him, and Bucky fought the impulse to be embarrassed at being caught. 

“Now, how about you tell me what happened,” 

He sighed internally, moving to sit, before launching into a heavily edited summary of the events of a few weeks ago. They’d been out investigating a potential supernatural phenomenon in a field in Iowa, discovering an impressive research base underground with no clear sign of ownership that had seemingly been abandoned. SHIELD now had the facility under their control, but during the investigation he and Bruce had been ...attacked by some weird viscous cloud material. They both had been cleared by medical, but his arm was still acting up. 

“Interesting,” Dr Granger said, running a scanning device over his arm. 

“And Bruce is fine?” 

“As far as I know,”

“I should probably call him in regardless,” she said, and Bucky hummed in agreement. 

“Bruce wouldn’t take three weeks to come see me though,” she said with a wink. 

Smart and in possession of sense of humour; he liked that in a woman. 

“That’s cause he’s a goody-two-shoes,” 

“And what does that make you, Mr. Barnes,” 

“I’m the terrorist assassin, violent and unpredictable,” he said with a biting tone, hating the truth to the words; he had some issues to work out. 

She was nonplussed by his words, shrugging them off, “perhaps, but then we could say the same – if not worse – about Bruce, and we wouldn’t would we,” 

“Then what would you call me?” 

She paused, “...you, Mr. Barnes, are a bad boy,” 

Bucky’s stomach fluttered, panic settling in his stomach as he realized this woman was flirting with him – genuinely flirting with him, while he sat there with his broken mutant robot arm open on the table between them. 

“And do you like Bad Boys, Dr Granger?” he said with a subtle smile; he may not have flirted in over a century, but clearly some skills didn’t totally rust. 

“just the reformed ones, Mr. Barnes, just the reformed ones,” 

He was surprised at her boldness, it caught him off-guard. She was kind and good, her refusal to work for Stark for so long evidence of that and that irritated him. He very clearly had a type – kindhearted heroic types, ones who always did the right thing; he loved Steve more in the last few years than he did when they were young; perhaps as a way to clean his own slate, the love of someone so good as Steve, and here was another kind person full of optimism and goodness flirting with him. 

He was torn between wanting to push the flirtation further, to see how far she would go. He could flirt with her, let her enjoy the fantasy of flirting with someone like him, before she retreated back into her professional demeanor and kept company with professional men. Girls like her enjoyed the idea of bad boy, but once presented with the reality of it, they retreated. But maybe she’d be more like Steve, relentless in her pursuit of a broken, damaged man like himself. 

“I am pretty much an Avenger, does that make me reformed?” he said, opting to continue the path of flirting. 

There was a pause before she replied, her attention stolen by some data coming in on her computer from his arm. 

“guess we’ll have to wait and see, Mr. Barnes,”

“You should call me Bucky, I hate when people call me Mr. Barnes,” 

“Okay, only if you call me Hermione though. All of the Avengers call me Hermione, and if you claim to be reformed, I suppose you should as well,” 

“And do you always flirt with all your Avenger patients, Dr Hermione” he pushed, watching as her eyes trailed over his torso; there’s no way that Thor or Valkyrie didn’t flirt with her, damn Asgardians. 

She chuckled, typing something into the computer, “You’re not really my patient, Mr. Barnes and I’m not really that type of doctor and no, I don’t flirt with the other Avengers,” she replied. 

“Ah, so I’m special,” he teased, “is it the arm? You like me for the arm?” he wouldn’t be offended if it was, he would still try and seduce her, Steve developed quite the kink for the arm and Bucky found it pretty hot, so who was he to judge. 

“Your arm really is a remarkable piece of technology, but I am not sure if you’ve looked in a mirror recently, Mr. Barnes, but the cybernetic arm is merely a bonus to the rest of you, add in the ‘broody superhero’ element and I’m surprised more people don’t openly flirt with you. Or perhaps they do, and you are just playing coy. I would also like to point out that you are flirting with me,” she said, meeting his gaze steadfastly. 

He grinned at her, not denying the claims against him. Oh, he definitely liked this woman. He liked women that would push him around a little, smart women, ones who knew better than him but that he could distract....and he would very much like to distract this woman. 

With his free hand, he pushed his hair back, settling more into the chair. He had to change the topic or one way or another he was going to have this woman straddling his lap and he really needed to get his arm fixed, especially if he planned on showing her all the things it could do. 

A comfortable silence settled between them as she poked and prodded his arm, double checking things on the computer and the various devices attached to him. He realized he had no idea what exactly she did and had simply trusted Stark’s trust in her. 

“What type of doctor are you then?” he asked genuinely curious. 

“I am a bio-cyberneticist....basically I work on the edges of biology and technology and how the two systems, how wetware and hardware, integrate,” she moved her hand to the part of his shoulder where his cybernetic arm meshed with his own flesh, and she placed a finger on the scar tissue, “this is where I work,” and she dragged her finger down the seam of tech and tissue. 

Their eyes met and Bucky shivered; it should not have been as erotic as it was, but his mind immediately came up with a dozen ideas of other things she could do, mostly involving her mouth on his shoulder, fully appreciating the complexities of his body while he fully appreciated the complexities of hers....repeatedly. 

She was close enough to him that he could pull her in for a kiss if he wanted, and gods did he want to. He wanted to bury both his hands in that wild mane of hair she had and kiss her deeply. 

The beeping of a machine interrupted them, breaking the heat of the moment and she turned to investigate. He was both grateful and frustrated for the interruption, he was acting like a teenager and not the 90+ plus man that he actually was. 

She turned back around to face him, “alright, so the good news is that I know what is wrong”

“and what’s the bad news?” he hedged

“it will require some minor surgery – which I can do now - but it will likely be rather painful even with a local anesthetic,” she said, looking pained at the news. 

“Will you kiss it to make it better?” he half-teased. 

She chuckled, “I could, but I could also give you a general anesthetic,” 

“No, I want to be awake for it,” he said, no flirting in his voice at all, “I don’t ... like being operated on while unconscious,” he admitted, surprised with his own honesty. 

“I understand,” she said, putting a hand on his shoulder to comfort him. “The gas you and Bruce encountered has created an odd polarization around the nerve endings; Bruce doesn’t have any non-bio tech in his body, so it makes sense why he wasn’t affected, and you were. I’m going to make a small incision here,” she again touched the seam of his arm, “and force the nerves to reset, it shouldn’t be more than 3 minutes, but your entire arm is going to feel like it’s on fire” she said. 

“but it’ll be normal after that?” he asked

“I suspect so, yes. I’ll want to do some check-ups after this and monitor it to make sure, however” and she placed different monitoring devices along his arm. 

When her hand came near his own, he took the opportunity to grab it, clasping her smaller hand within his larger metal one. 

“Do you do home visits?” he teased, rubbing his thumb in the palm of her hand. 

She smiled and rolled her eyes, and he felt sort of bad for distracting her while she was trying to be professional; she was clearly interested in him but was also clearly trying to be detached and he wasn’t making it easy on her. He didn’t really feel that bad about it though. 

“Depends how well dinner goes, I suppose”

“I haven’t asked you for dinner,”

“I know,” 

“I should though, being a reformed bad boy and all,”

“Depends what sort of bedside manner you’re looking for,” 

“Oh, I want more of this flirty nurse bedside manner, though with less clothes if I’m behind honest” 

“I’m a Doctor,”

“Flirty doctor then. I should remind you that you’re the one that started this, shouldn’t you ask me to dinner,”

“Mr. Barnes, I believe I already did,” 

He paused, and then tossed his head back in laughter as he realized what she’d done, “you did indeed. It’s a date. I’ll pick you up here at 7,” 

She grinned, and then set about working on his arm, the flirtatious demeanor gone as she focused on her task. He tried to relax, letting her work, a warm feeling in his chest at how she had surprised him. He was excited to see what other surprises she held.


End file.
